POTTSTOWN — Don Keck still remembers when the Schuylkill River crept up Main Street in South Pottstown six years ago.

And he still remembers who, six months later, trying to put his life and home back together when Operation Holiday came knocking, with a holiday meal in a box and gift cards to buy Christmas presents for the children in his house.

And now, Keck honors that memory and that kindness by doing the same for others.

An employee of Built By Berger, Keck used a morning off to show up at The Mercury, with a group of his Pottstown Quoit Club buddies, to help pack up the food for this year’s families.

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“This is my third year every since Billy suggested it to me,” said Keck, referring to Mercury driver Bill Boyer who has, in all the years he has worked for The Mercury, only missed one Operation Holiday pack-up.

It is a tradition now in its 22nd year, a holiday tradition for the families who help as much as for those who are helped.

Mandy March, the 23-year-old daughter of Mercury Editor Nancy March, has been helping out for at least 10 years.

Mike Weekley, a Pottstown native and former Mercury employee, was there, as was Donna Montesano, a Mercury administrator who has been lending a hand since 2004.

So trustworthy is she that she was the only one allowed to wield the scissors used on the food boxes. Perhaps it’s because, as the person in charge of health insurance, she wanted to avoid workplace injury and the paperwork that comes with it.

“I’ve helped out since I started,” she said more seriously.

So strong is the apparent attraction that even people who haven’t even started working at the Mercury yet were drawn to help.

Starting in January, Caroline Sweeney, 25, will be The Mercury’s newest reporter, but on pack-up day — Dec. 20th this year — she was happy to be just another set of hands in the assembly line packing holiday fixins for the region’s needy families

“I think this is really neat,” said the Kansas City native. “It’s great that we’re here just to help people, for no other reason.”

Limerick resident Sharon Yergey took a personal day off from work and brought her four children, three from Pope John Paul II and one from Spring-Ford schools, to lend a hand.

Hers was the hand holding the pen that marked the boxes to indicate their contents to the local non-profit agencies, churches and school districts which identify the neediest families for Operation Holiday and distribute the bounty paid for by the contributions of our readers.

The Yergeys arrived early and put together the first of the two sets of boxes for 237 families and 629 children who are the recipients of this year’s Operation Holiday efforts.

Their early arrival may have had to do with the fact that they were brought in by Greg Yergey, The Mercury’s circulation manager, who is used to being at the newspaper very early indeed to make sure you get your newspaper on time.

Also on hand, as they are every year, were Pottstown High School students who comprise the school’s student government.

Led by advisor Mark Agnew, who brought his own family along to help as well, the 11 students helped to pack boxes and then headed off to visit with Pottstown elementary students, arriving as Santa’s helpers, to deliver candy canes to those who had written to Santa.

Soloman Bailey, 15, was one of them and, despite the chilly temperatures inside The Mercury loading bay, considered shorts the appropriate attire.

He said he wasn’t cold and hey, at least he was wearing gloves.

Sophomore Anthony Gazzillo was on hand for the second time and said at times he thinks about the fact that some of his classmates may belong to families who Operation Holiday will help this year, or has in years past.

“It’s very important to me to come back and help the community where I grew up,” added Weekley who, although he no longer works for The Mercury, does work for its parent company as a marketing specialist and now lives in King of Prussia.

It’s a sentiment March expressed when she welcomed the volunteers Thursday morning.

“We couldn’t do it without you,” March said, mentioning the Pottstown students, those from Spring-Ford, Pope John Paul II and the Quoit Club.

“It looks like we’re going to end up the year with $47,000 or $48,000 which is really amazing,” said March. “In the last couple years, when other non-profits have seen their contributions drop, the people in Pottstown continue to help children and families in need,” she said.

Advertising Director Steve Batten acknowledged Weis Markets, which provides the food for the holiday meals each year, and Boscov’s Department Store, which helps make the gift certificates more affordable by donating 10 percent of the cost of the cards.

Weis Store Manager Jeff Degler was there to deliver the food to be divided up and re-packed for distribution.

He said Operation Holiday is the store’s primary community outreach effort, mostly because there is so little overhead.

There is no overhead with Operation Holiday and all funds stay in the Pottstown area. Families are referred by local agencies and churches. Funds are collected and audited in a non-profit foundation account managed by staff of The Mercury.

Food, which includes the fixings for a holiday dinner as well as staples for the pantry, is ordered, bought, packed and distributed by Mercury employees. Gift cards for every child in the program 16 years of age or younger are purchased through Boscov’s and distributed in partnership with the referring agencies.

Operation Holiday does not accept families who have not been referred by an agency in order to protect the integrity of the program.

Operation Holiday is funded solely by readers’ contributions. All contributions are tax deductible. Contributions may be mailed or brought to the offices of The Mercury, P.O. Box 484, Pottstown PA 19464. Make checks payable to Operation Holiday.

In essence, Operation Holiday operates only because of thousands of people like Mike Hijosh of Pottstown.

He does not work at The Mercury and never has.

He did not arrive with any non-profit agency affiliated with the effort.

“I’m retired,” said Hijosh, who said he sent his children to Owen J. Roberts schools but now lives in Pottstown’s East End.

“I always gave to Operation Holiday before,” Hijosh said, “and now I just like to come down and help out.”